After more than eight years as Karnataka's Chief Minister across two terms, Siddaramaiah stepped before the people of his home constituency on Monday, October 5, 2026, not as the head of government but as a legislator returning to roots — launching ₹183.64 crore worth of development projects in Varuna constituency and delivering what reads as a political valediction to the voters who made him.

Speaking at a development works inauguration and foundation-laying ceremony at Dasanuru village in Varuna, Siddaramaiah drew a line under his second Chief Ministership: he had taken oath on May 23, 2023 and resigned on May 26, 2026, honouring a prior public commitment to step down whenever Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked him to. 'I had said many times before that I would vacate the Chief Minister's post whenever Rahul Gandhi says so,' he noted. 'I kept my word.'

₹183 Crore for Varuna — What the Numbers Say

Of the total ₹183.64 crore package announced Monday, works worth more than ₹40 crore were formally inaugurated, while projects valued at approximately ₹143 crore received foundation stones. Siddaramaiah framed the event in the sweep of Varuna's entire post-delimitation history: since the constituency was carved out in 2008, development expenditure over four Assembly terms has crossed ₹5,034 crore — a figure he cited as the clearest measure of what the constituency's sustained loyalty to him has yielded in return.

A Political Biography Told in Numbers

The speech was as much retrospective as ceremonial. Siddaramaiah reminded Varuna voters that across four elections since 2008, they have elected him three times and his son Yatindra Siddaramaiah once — in 2018. He has won eight elections in all across a public life spanning more than four decades, serving as minister, Chief Minister twice, and Leader of the Opposition twice.

On promise-keeping — his stated governing philosophy — he told the crowd that during his first CM term from 2013 to 2018, his government delivered on 158 of the 165 promises in the Congress election manifesto, and also launched welfare schemes including Anna Bhagya (food security), Krishi Bhagya (farm water harvesting), Ksheera Bhagya (mid-day milk), and Shadi Bhagya (marriage assistance). After returning to power in 2023, he said, all five Congress guarantee schemes — Shakti (free bus travel for women), Gruha Lakshmi (cash transfer to women heads of household), Gruha Jyoti (free electricity up to 200 units), Anna Bhagya, and Yuva Nidhi (unemployment allowance for graduates) — were operationalised within a single year.

Drought Shadow Over the Guarantees' Relevance

Siddaramaiah did not shy away from the hardest context: Karnataka is in the grip of what he described as its worst drought in 126 years, with 217 of 240 taluks declared drought-affected. Against that backdrop, he argued, the guarantee schemes have functioned as a social buffer — putting cash, food, and essential support directly in the hands of poor and middle-class families at exactly the moment the agrarian economy buckled.

The Transition to D.K. Shivakumar — and What Comes Next for Varuna

Siddaramaiah acknowledged D.K. Shivakumar as the sitting Chief Minister and expressed confidence that Shivakumar would continue the welfare commitments of the Congress government. For his own part, he told constituents he will remain their MLA for approximately another year and a half — until the 2028 Assembly elections. He also asked Varuna voters to extend the same affection to his son Yatindra, now a Karnataka Legislative Council member, as they have to him.

The closing note was pointed: 'Power is not permanent, but the relationship with the people and public service are.' For a leader who has spent four decades navigating Karnataka's volatile political terrain — winning eight times, losing, rebuilding — that is less a platitude than a battle-tested axiom.